Safe Retail Precincts Initiative

Townsville Chamber of Commerce

The Safe Retail Precincts initiative is a new program launched by the National Retail Association with funding from the Australian Government.

The program aims to provide information on best practice during serious and emergency events, safety obligations and preparedness, and intelligence sharing between retailers, shopping centres, law enforcement and government bodies.

The Australia retail industry is a large and diverse sector, with 1.3 million employees and $324 billion in sales per year. According to the National Retail Association research in 2019, 55% of retail employees are female and 425,000 are youth employees. An ever-evolving industry, strong and prepared retailers make vital contributions to the local and national economy.

Free to all, including those retailers outside of the National Retail Association, the Safe Retail Precincts program brings together retailers, retail staff, shopping centres, law enforcement, emergency services and government to create safer and more vibrant retail precincts. Retailers can benefit from an increased understanding of their safety obligations and practices, working to ensure the safety of their staff, customers and retail precinct from challenges and serious threats.

Retailers can register through the Safe Retail Precinct initiative to access insights, factsheets and posters covering topics such as hazard identification, customer safety and wellbeing, power outage, disorderly behaviour, identifying suspicious behaviour and armed offender incidents. The National Retail Association also shares regular updates about issues relevant to retailers and offers training and assistance to retailers, preparing teams for serious incidents or events.

Resources for Retailers

As a starting point, the program provides two posters for retailers to display to their employees: